2 Answers
2

A propeller-head coder is seen as someone who is quite brilliant at developing software but often writes complex or 'clever' solutions that only they (or other propeller-heads) can understand.

PH: "See how I solved Euclids theory in Java in one line?"
D1: "Errrrr, nope."
PH: "How can you not see the elegance? It's one line"

Often the propeller-head is completely unaware that they are doing this and fail to see why other people just don't 'get it'. They can often get frustrated with people that 'can't keep up' and in turn people get frustrated with them as they are seen to be elitist and 'lording their intellectual superiority over others'.

A propeller head (also spelled
propellor head , and sometimes
shortened to prop head or prophead )
is jargon for someone who is
exceptionally, perhaps weirdly bright
or knowledgeable, especially in some
technical field. In computers,
according to The New Hacker's
Dictionary , it's a synonym for
computer geek . The term refers to the
child's beanie cap that comes with a
spinning propeller sticking out of the
top.

The New Hacker's Dictionary says that
the propeller cap somehow became a
self-parody symbol of the
out-of-this-worldness of science
fiction fans. It attributes the idea
to science fiction writer Ray Faraday
Nelson. We like this tongue-in-cheek
definition from The Web Developer's
Journal :

"The term 'prophead' is a holdover from the days when the nerd
kids on the block wore caps with
little propellers on top. This fashion
gave way to the pencil pocket
protector. Here at the WDJ,
'propheads' refers to programmers,
developers and other
technically-oriented types. A weenie
doesn't even use a regular keyboard,
just a little one with two keys: 1 and
0. Weenies talk among themselves in continuous data streams, which sound
to mortal ears like a modem logging
on."